On the recordAugust 2, 2010
I think there are at least four areas where every child in America should have the opportunity to have the full measure of our attention and our action. Certainly, health care--I will talk a little bit about health care tonight--and, obviously, nutrition, and preventing hunger is a huge priority; third, early learning, which I will speak of tonight as well; fourth, just basic safety. If every child has at least those four, no matter what their circumstances, they will have a much better chance of succeeding and contributing to our economy than they would without our help. We can't do everything, but America can do a lot more than it is doing now as it relates to our children. As it confronts us as a challenge--what happens to our children--there are at least two sets of updates. One is the bad news--the numbers we see right now in the midst of a recession. The other side of the ledger is some good news, in terms of actions that have been taken and strategies that are in place to help our kids. First of all, the bad news. Child poverty is on the rise, in large measure because of the recession.
